Darlene

“Shit. Now I’ve done it. She’d given him a piece of her mind, and he was about to give her one back.”
― Natsu Hyuuga, The Apothecary Diaries (Light Novel): Volume 7

“For you, I will remove every obstacle that keeps us apart. One day. Just know that.” With that, Jinshi buried himself under the covers. “I won’t let what you fear come to pass. I swear it.” Soon she heard him breathing evenly in sleep. What I fear... Maomao pictured Empress Gyokuyou. I don’t think Master Jinshi knows, she thought. She didn’t think he was aware of the secret of his own birth. What about Empress Gyokuyou? Does she know? And what did His Majesty want for Jinshi? What about Ah-Duo? It’s never good to know too much.”
― Natsu Hyuuga, The Apothecary Diaries (Light Novel): Volume 7

“He took a breath. He was looking at Maomao, but somehow he seemed almost embarrassed. Finally he managed, “Now listen to me, y—I mean, Maomao! Listen close! I am going to make you my wife!” He’d said it. He’d actually said it. To her, it sounded like a death sentence. All his vagueness, all his ambiguity had actually been a show of kindness to Maomao. For with her social status, the words once spoken were as good as a command. She couldn’t fight them, couldn’t contravene what he wished.”
― Natsu Hyuuga, The Apothecary Diaries (Light Novel): Volume 7

“The whole conviction of my life now rests upon the belief that loneliness, far from being a rare and curious phenomenon, peculiar to myself and to a few other solitary men, is the central and inevitable fact of human existence.”
― Thomas Wolfe, God's Lonely Man